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I have always been a little bit obsessed with watches, and I
almost never leave the house without wearing one. When I was younger I remember
I only had a small collection of watches, of which one of them was a round ‘water
dome’ digital watch with a fish in it. Now my collection has grown (a lot!) but with classier
and elegant leather watches, all of which currently have a leather strap. Something missing from my collection was a metal
watch, until now.

I have never liked metal watches as I feel they are too big
and heavy, and don’t fit very well. That was, until I was exposed to Welly Merck - a sophisticated watch brand selling a wide variety of leather and metal watches for both men and women.I chose this beautiful rose gold mesh strap watch (Classic New York RBR)
that is a very minimalistic and sophisticated design. It fits perfectly with my
style and adds a statement to any outfit. The case is only 6mm thin and the dial is
36mm. The glass is made from sapphire crystal – which makes its very strong and
durable! The
strap is thin stainless steel, almost weightless, and is easy to adjust
to fit any wrist size. It is very comfortable and doesn’t irritate my
skin at all. The
straps are also interchangeable, so you can buy straps in a different
colour or choose leather options too, so you can mix and match depending
on your outfit.

The formation of this brand is a sweet story. An American boy named Merck, met a girl named Welly and they both fell in love. Due
to distance and differences they could not be together, until they
overcame various difficulties and married each other when Merck came to
Switzerland. Together, they chose to memorise their love story and
created their own watch brand ‘Welly Merck’.

It comes in a simple box that is great to keep your watch in, and hasclassy presentation if it is a gift for someone. I compared this watch in terms of design, comfort and durability, to my two favourite watch brands, Daniel Wellington and Olivia Burton, and I can genuinely say it is as good as they are. Being a watch 'hoarder', I would definitely recommend this company! This watch is available for $265 and there are a wider range of designs on their site. Welly Merck are kindly offering my readers 20% off with my
discount codeAyesha20

Enjoy!

Take care!

Ayesha xxxNote: I was kindly sent this watch by Welly Merck. This
brand adapts to my personal style and I would recommend it to others, hence I agreed to collaborate with them. My
opinions are honest as always.

I am back with a
Psychology/mental health related post after so long! Many of you may have heard
the term ‘mindfulness’. But what does it mean? Mindfulness is consciously/deliberately
being aware of something, but not thinking about it. It is being aware of what is happening and attending
to whatever is happening. It involves paying attention to our own mind and
body, being in equilibrium with the outside world.

Mindfulness is developing
this capacity of attention and awareness, as generally, we always focus on
thoughts rather than awareness. An example: when you eat something, let’s use a
raisin as an example, are you aware of the various sensations you experience? Or
do you taste, chew and swallow without much thought? Being mindful when eating
a raisin would involve being aware of the texture of the raisin, how it feels
against your tongue, what bursts of flavour you experience, how heavy it is in
your mouth.. etc.Often we work in ‘automatic pilot’, having our attention somewhere else
and not attending to 'here and now'. For example, you could be doing the
ironing but not have your full attention to the task as you are concentrating
on what you might cook for dinner.

This is some delicious hot
cookie dough. This photo was appropriate for this post because I was naturally
very mindful while eating this because it tasted so good :P

Mindfulness can help you
to skilfully let go of your worries and negative thoughts, but it requires
practice and being done regularly. Mindfulness based therapeutic interventions
are also used by Psychologists to help patients. It is a good technique to reduce stress. You can try some simple
mindfulness techniques yourself to become more aware of yourself and of what
you are currently doing.

1)Breathing:

-Pay attention to your
breathing. Just focus on your breath. Allow the pressure from inside to leave
and feel your breathing become calmer and relaxed. Be aware as you inhale, what
happens inside your body (the air filling your lungs)/the physical sensation,
how it feels, and as you exhale try to fully experience that sensation too.

2)Activities – e.g. walking outside:

-Focus
your full attention on the experience of walking. Feel the ground in contact
with your feet, feel the bend of your knee as you walk. What do you feel on the
ground as you walk? Is the path smooth, is it uneven, and are there leaves you walk over?
Feel the pressure of each foot as you change from left to right when you walk.

It may sound a bit exaggerated giving so much attention to daily tasks,
but try it. You don’t have to share it with anyone. You don’t have to focus too
much on it either. You just need to be more aware your experiences and sensations
in the current moment.

That’s it for now! This
was different post to usual, hope you enjoyed it.

So it’s spring. Sort of. I have a new lipstick colour that I am obsessed
with. Of course it’s Charlotte Tilbury. I’m allergic to everything else (that I’ve
tried)! This lipstick has the best name ever.. Bond Girl! Love it. I’ve never
worn this type of a colour before. I never gravitate towards natural shades. As they say on the website “Bond Girl is a chic natural berry for
sultry & alluring beauties”. It’s a gorgeous colour. I wouldn’t have even
tried it to be honest; it was by coincidence that I came across it. I used to
associate such shades and browner tones with ‘mum’ colours (shades you would
see your mum wearing), but they actually look really nice and are also on
trend. It’s a perfect colour not just for the season, but also daytime. You can
wear in the evening too with prominent eye makeup if you wish. It's like a red-toned light brown colour in my opinion. It's not super dark either.

It is priced at £23, like all the other lipsticks in this collection. I got mine from Selfridges. The colour goes on seamlessly, it has good staying power, it is matte but doesn't dry out my lips, and the formula is lovely to wear! Let me know if you've tried this colour or any other lipsticks you think I should try!

I hope you're all good. I've been absent for a while. I've been a bit busy and also a bit demotivated. Then things got ahead of me and I didn't priorities blogging. Sorry! Last month my grandmother passed away and that was a big event in my life.

The loss of my grandmother affected me deeper than I thought. I was not ready to deal with it and so removed myself from any situation that would lead me to be reminded of her and the fact that she was gone. We regularly had family friends come visit to see us and my mum to share their messages of condolence. Most of the time during this I would stay in my room and pretend like this wasn't happening. I wanted everyone to just stay away and let us mourn alone. That is obviously not the best thought I should have had. I refused to speak to any of my friends about my grandmother, and for a good few weeks I didn't speak to any of my friends at all. This was something that was under my control, because they were MY friends, and not my family's. I repressed all my feelings, refusing to deal with them. It was too painful to face at the time.

Slowly as the days past, I realised that I was somewhat becoming depressed. This scared me. I had depressive thoughts and a constant sad mood. This was normal though, after what I had been going through. To a certain extent I also felt angry and hostile towards the world. It was my subconscious repressed feelings that were making me feel so negative. Being negative is not something I do often, so it's a big change. I also noticed that my diet had changed drastically and I was constantly indulging in 'comfort' foods such as chocolate and cakes. I have a sweet tooth but I am good at managing my diet. I wasn't improving at all really and I wasn't doing much to help myself.

Then, thankfully, I went on a short break to Amsterdam which was pre planned a few months in advance. If it wasn't already booked I may have not even wanted to go. I only started feeling excited in the few days before I left rather than feel ecstatic for a longer time beforehand. Then when we got there, I had fun. I actually really enjoyed myself. I slowly started to let go of all the negativity and started loving myself and my life again. I really made sure I had fun and did things that would make me happy. The change of space was helping me a lot and diverted my attention and negative thoughts. By the end of the short break I felt very refreshed and ready to face life again.

When I got back to England on Friday evening, I started thinking. I realised that I was in a positive state (after so long) and decided I wasn't going to let that go. I decided that I was going to get back up on my feet and sort my life out. I started by making a list of things that I need to do, then getting in touch with my friends and enjoying our conversations and having a laugh with them like a always did. Today, it's Monday, and I feel good. I woke up early, worked out and went on a run outside in the (almost) lovely weather. I ate a good breakfast and feel prepared to face the week. I'm going to focus on eating healthier again and limit my chocolate and cheese (and other unhealthy foods) intake. I'm not cutting them out, but instead eat them in moderation. When I eat healthy and keep fit I feel amazing. It works wonder for my mood (and everything else about me too!) I also need to start drinking more water.

I realised that, even though my life situations may be out of my control, how I handle them, how I respond to them, how I feel about them and what I think about them, can affect my life greatly. They can affect me as a whole person. So going back to my usual self, I am just going to say that being positive is the best thing you can do for yourself. Focus on you, what you want, and how you're going to help make yourself be happy.